VAIL — Tejay van Garderen broke the Vail time-trial record Friday to all but wrap up the third annual USA Pro Challenge.

Van Garderen finished the 10-mile uphill course in 25:01, nipping the 25:05 that Andrew Talansky of Boulder-based Team Garmin-Sharp set earlier in the day.

"That was certainly a hard effort," van Garderen said. "I don't even know how to describe it. Your lungs are searing up there in that thin air. You look down at your power and your SRM (power rating device) and you're doing way less than you normally do at sea level, so sometimes it's easy to get demoralized. But you have to remind yourself, 'This is OK. I think this is OK.' "

Edwin Avila of Team Colombia gets encouragement from fans as he takes on Vail Pass in Friday's time trial. (Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post)

Van Garderen now leads Garmin-Sharp's Tom Danielson by 1:42 entering the last two relatively easy stages. Danielson finished the time trial in third at 26:27.

"I just raced pretty evenly the whole thing," Danielson said. "It's not the perfect course for me, but it's not a bad one, either. I did the best I could. (Thursday) was really my card to play."

Van Garderen, who finished second overall last year, leads teammate Mathias Frank by 1:30, Danielson by 1:42 and Colombian Janier Acevedo by 2:10.

Talansky shattered Levi Leipheimer's 2011 record of 25:47. Van Garderen, riding last, reached the halfway point 30 seconds faster than Talansky's record and originally his time was 25:23. A quick review, however, gave him a time of 25:01.

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Danielson, who trailed van Garderen by 40 seconds, went past the halfway mark in 13:09.06, only six seconds slower than Talansky's pace.

The race continues Saturday with a 115.2-mile Stage 6 from Loveland to Fort Collins. The race finishes Sunday with 72.4 flat miles through Denver.

Lockheed says object part of 'sensor technology' testing that ended ThursdayWhat the heck is that thing? It's fair to assume that question was on the minds of many people who traveled along Colo. 128 south of Boulder this week if they happened to catch a glimpse of what appeared to be a large, silver projectile perched alongside the highway and pointed north toward town.

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